SCAR SO-CPR Survey
Graham Hosie - Director AAD, Tasmania
Antarctic plankton are expected to be particularly sensitive and
vulnerable to climate change. Global warming will affect sea ice
patterns and plankton distributions. Increased UV levels, ocean
acidification, invasive plankton species, pollution and harvesting
impacts are also potential major threats. At this stage we do not
know the synergistic effects of any of the threats acting in
combination.
The SCAR SO-CPR Survey was established in 1991 by the Australian
Antarctic Division (Department of Sustainability, Environment,
Water, Population and Communities) to map the spatial-temporal
patterns of zooplankton biodiversity and then to use the
sensitivity of plankton to environmental change as early warning
indicators of the health of the Southern Ocean (Hosie et al.
2003).
It also serves as reference for other monitoring programs such as
CCAMLR's Ecosystem Monitoring Program C-EMP, and the Southern Ocean
Observing System.
Fourteen ships from eight countries have participated in the
Survey to date: Australia, Japan, Germany, New Zealand, USA,
Russia, Brazil and Chile providing a near circum-Antarctic Survey.
The United Kingdom, through collaboration between SAHFOS and the
British Antarctic Survey oversees an additional survey in the
Scotia Sea. Brazil and Chile also represent the South American
Census of Antarctic Marine Life consortium of Brazil, Uruguay,
Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela, established during
the International Polar Year.
The consortium supported by the Brazilian and Chilean Antarctic
programs, and the US AMLR programme conduct CPR tows across Drake
Passage, which complement the tows conducted by the UK. Russia
(AARI) has provided the few CPR in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen
Seas, an area where biological sampling is poor. New Zealand (NIWA)
conducts annual tows south to the Ross Sea. Germany (AWI) works
south of Cape Town. The highest concentration of CPR tows is in the
region south and west Australia, conducted by Japan (NIPR and
TUMSAT) and Australia, led by the AAD and supported by
AusCPR.
The SO-CPR Survey is supported by the SCAR Expert Group on
Continuous Plankton Research, which helps promote and develop the
Survey. The Southern Ocean CPRs are towed from research and supply
vessels that also collect at the same time, underway data such as
sea surface temperature, salinity, fluorometry, light and other
oceanographic-meteorological parameters.
 |
Preparing the CPR on board TS Umitaka Maru (Graham
Hosie)
|
The silks are processed in the laboratory by trained plankton
taxonomists in Australia, Japan and New Zealand. The UK samples are
processed at SAHFOS. Another centre is being established in South
America.
All plankton in five nautical mile equivalent sections are
identified to the lowest possible taxa, usually species and
counted. Antarctic krill and other euphausiids are identified to
developmental stage. Plankton counts are combined with averaged
environmental data for each 5 nmile.
 |
CPR Tows conducted between 1991-2008 (AADC Map
13481)
|
With the support of AusCPR, phytoplankton counts have been
conducted on selected Australia tows since 2007. Approximately 50
tows are made each year, although more than 80 tows were completed
in 2007-08 for CAML. Approximately, 150,000 nautical miles of
tracks have been sampled since 1991, producing more than 30,000
samples for nearly 250 zooplankton and 80+ phytoplankton taxa
coupled with environmental data. Most data come from the October to
April period, the main period of shipping activity. Some winter
tows south of Australia have been made.